For instance, connectors for use under an oil environment are required to have structures resistive to contaminations. Patent Literature No. 1 (PLT1) discloses a connector device as the representative of such conventional connector devices.
This prior art connector device 100 comprises a male terminal connector 101 and a female terminal connector 110. The male terminal connector 101 includes a male terminal connector housing 102 having a mating connector fitting chamber 103 whose front face is opened, and a plurality of male terminals 104 secured in the male terminal connector housing 102. In the male terminals 104, their respective tips are arranged to project in the mating connector fitting chamber 103 at regular intervals.
The female terminal connector 110 includes a female terminal connector housing 111 having a plurality of terminal accommodating chambers 112 and a plurality of female terminals 113 accommodated in the respective terminal accommodating chambers 112. The respective terminal accommodating chambers 112 are partitioned by an outer wall 111a and partition walls 111b, respectively. Each terminal accommodating chamber 112 is provided, on its front face, with a terminal insertion opening 114 into which the mating male terminal 104 is inserted. Each terminal accommodating chamber 112 is also provided, on its rear face, with a wire withdrawal opening 115 from which a wire (not shown) is withdrawn outside. Further, front faces of the outer wall 111a and the partition walls 111b surrounding the respective terminal insertion openings 114 are adapted so as to abut against far walls 102a of the mating connector fitting chamber 103 of the male terminal connector housing 102 when the female terminal connector 110 is fitted to the male terminal connector housing 102.
In the above constitution, since the outer wall 111a and the partition walls 111b forming the peripheries of the respective terminal insertion openings 114 of the female terminal connector housing 111 abut against the far walls 102a of the male terminal connector housing 102 under a connector fitting condition, the adjoining terminal accommodating chambers 112 are not communicated with each other through the terminal insertion openings 114 and a front gap. In addition, the respective wire withdrawal openings 115 of the female terminal connector housing 111 are generally sealed up with rubber plugs (not shown) fitted on the outer circumferences of the wires. In this way, the terminal accommodating chambers 112 are shielded to prevent pollution dispersion of contaminants into the terminal accommodating chambers 112, as much as possible.
Meanwhile, the connector device 100 may be brought into a condition of using only the terminal accommodating chambers 112 whose number is less than the maximum number of settable terminal accommodating chambers. In such a situation, hole caps may be fitted into unused terminal accommodating chambers 112 or dummy terminals crimping short wires may be accommodated in the unused terminal accommodating chambers 112. In this way, by preventing the contaminants from entering the nonuse terminal accommodating chambers 112 as possible, diffusion of the contaminants into the connector device 100 is avoided. The inside diffusion of contaminants into the female terminal connector housing 111 may cause any problem, such as short-circuit.